Machine for rolling car-wheels



2 Sheets--Sheet 1. H. W. FOWLEE.

MACHINE POR ROLLING GAB. WHEELS.

Patented Dec. 18, 1888.

(No Model.)

82% m. Q v@ 'IIL 2 Sheets--Sheet 2.

(N o Model.)

LH. W. FOWLER.

MACHINE EOE ROLLING GAE WHEELS.

Patented Deo. 18, 1888.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

HERVEY IV. FOVLER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

MACHINE FOR ROLLING CAR-WHEELS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 394,565, dated December 18, 1888.

Application filed May 23, 1888. Serial No. 274,801. (No model.)

To allwi-om t may concern:

Be it known that I, HEEvEY W. FoWLER, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines foi Rolling Ca1'-\Yheels; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings furnished and forming a part thereof, is a clear, true, and complete description of the several features of my invention.

Heretofore in this branch of the art of metalworking many machines have been devised and patented, wherein rolls of various forms have been organized with an extensive variety of arrangement and involving various modes of operation, not only in working the metal throughout an entire wheel, but also in restricting such working to certain portions of the Wheel.

A machine embodying my present invention involves a mode of operation unlike that of any prior organization known to me. I prefer to employ cast-steel car-wheel blanks, each having a hub in its desired or finished form, a web of the desired thickness in the finished wheel, a rim which is thicker than is desired in the finished wheel, but having the ultimately desired width, and which has a rudimentary flange, and in working such a blank the rim is so subjected to the rolling operation asl to develop the rudimentary flange into perfect form, accurately shape the tread, reduce the thickness of the rim, and with or without slightly enlarging the diameter of the web. As a result of this novel mode of operation, the metal at the hub and in the web (except possibly at its junction with the rim) is in its normal condition; but at said junction the metal is or will be as a rule slightly condensed laterally and radially, and the metal in the rim is condensed in radial lines and the tread and liange fully developed and made concentric, but the metal in the interior of the rim is but slightly worked. If the web be not, strictly speaking, increased in diameter, then, as an inevitable con sequence, the interior portions of the rim adjacent to its junction with the sides of the web must be of such changed 'concave or inclined contour as to form, in substance, either a thickened portion of a web which has been increased in diameter, or it so forms an inner portion of the rim as to make it in substance an enlarged portion of the Web.

The prime feature of novelty in my present machine is the combination,with a positivelydriven roll having a working-face conforming to the flange and tread of a finished car-wheel, of a pair of wheel-supporting rolls, which are less in diameter than one-half the diameter of the car-wheel to be operated upon, and having coincident faces located opposite the working-face of said main working-roll, each of the faces of said supporting-rolls preferably corresponding with or to the contour desired in the finished wheel at the junction of the web and rim; and in their best form of organization these three rolls are horizontal and so arranged with reference to each other that the supporting-rolls can carry and sustain a wheel-blank in a vertical position and suspended by its rim while the upper or main roll is being positively driven and gradually forced or thrust to its work, the blank meantime revolving by the action of the upper or main working-roll while said blank is suspended on said supporting-rolls. My supporting-rolls are in no sense chuck-rolls, as heretofore proposed, for clamping and engaging with the two sides of a wheel and supporting the entire inner surface 0f its rim, it being obvious that my supporting-rolls must be smaller in diameter than one-half the diameter of the wheel to be operated upon, whereas said chuck-rolls have a diameter equal to the diameter of the web of said wheel. These supporting-rolls may be revolved by the contact therewith of the wheel revolved by lhe main working-roll, or one or both of them may be positively driven, or driven as by a friction-clutch, which will, if need be, allow of such lost motion as would be desirably involved. For guiding the revolving blank and accurately maintaining its axis in the same vertical plane and in line with the aXisof the main and the supporting rolls when all are horizontally arranged, I employ a pair of freely-revolving centers or centering-heads, which engage with the opposite portions of the hub at its axial opening, and I have so mounted said centeringheads that they may be forced and held in proper lateral engagement with the hub, and

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similar centeringheads may also be -used when the several rolls are otherwise arranged. Inasmnch as the described working of the metal necessarily involves a gradual increase in the diameter of the blank to a greater or lesser extent, whether said rolls be vertical or horizontal', said centering-heads are rendered movable in a line at right angles to the axis of the main roll, while confined against movement sidewise or laterally from said line, so that as the distance between the axis of the wheel and the face of the main workingroll increases said centering-heads may progressively adjust themselves to their proper positions with relation to the hub of thev wheel and still properly perform for the wheel their center-guiding functions. In their best form each of the said three rolls has annular vertical faces, between which the metalin the rim of the blank or wheel is restricted against lateral expansion during the action of the upper or main working-roll; but inasmuch as a portion of the surface of each side of a rim will be untouched by said vertical faces a slight lateral bulging of metal. is liable to occur, and for correcting this I employ at each side of the main working-roll and the supporting-rolls a pair of side-finishing rolls, which compress the rimV laterally between them and correct the `said bulging of the metal, and they also perform an important service in guiding the wheel with great accuracy during the operation of rolling. These side-finishing and guiding rolls may be positively driven or revolved bythe rolling movement of the wheel; but in either event one or both rolls in each pair shouldbe providedl with means for forcing' it or them into proper contact with the rim of the wheel.

Side rim finishing rolls have heretofore been proposed for use with a series of rolls capable of operating only upon the periphery of a wheel or tire; but I have now for the first portion of the rim not embraced by said two4 supporting-rolls and said one main roll, and also so as to guide the rim of a wheel as it moves toward and from said rolls.

To more particularly describe my invention, I will refer to the accompanying' drawings, in which- Figure l illustrates in partial. longitudinal vertical section a machine embodying my said improvements and having a car-Wheel in position as if being acted upon by the main roll. Fig. 2 isa vertical lateral section of said machine. Figs. and ft illustrate details of one of the side-finishing rolls.

' The frame A may be indefinitely varied in A its structure, due consideration being given roll B ismounted in bearings within the por tion A of the frame which serves as its housing, and it is vprovided with screws a ci, by means of which it may be progressively advanced to its work. This main roll has a working-face conforming at ZJ with the tread of the car-wheel desired, and at b it has a groove which conforms to the perfect flange desired in a finished wheel. At the end of said working-face there are annular vertical faces b2 b3, which confine or restrict the metal in the rim of a car-wheel against lateral expansion. This main roll is provided with a shaft, b4, to which drivii'ig-gearin g (not shown) is applied in a mann er common to metalworking rolls. The vertical faces b2 b3 may be afforded by m etal integral with the roll, as is preferable, or they maybe provided for by means of collars or other appliances which will prevent the lateral displacement of the metal bythe main roll during its action upon the periphery of the blank or wheel.

rlhe two wheel-supporting rolls C and C are mounted in fixed boxes or bearings below and in line with the main roll B, and their diameter is essentially much less than one-half the diameter of the wheel to be operated upon.

The supporting-roll C has a collar at c,which, by abutting against the end of an adjacent bearing, prevents endwise movement of said' roll in that direction.

The supporting-roll C is capable of beingV moved to and fro longitudinally in its bearings, this being necessary not only for enabling aWheel-blank to be putin position and the finished wheel removed, but also to enable said roll to be forced endwise with sufficient force to maintain it in proper position for duty. At its outer end this roll has a looselyswiveled head, d, against which a screw, d',

abuts, and Vthe latter is tapped into a threaded hole in a bracket, (Z2, pivoted on a bolt at its lower end, and provided with a receiving-recess, CZS, at its upper end, so that said bracket andthe screw can be promptly swung to the one side to enable the endwise withdrawal of the roll, which operation can be facilitated by use of a forked han d-lever. ted lines in Fig. l.)

At their inner ends these supporting-rolls C C are each provided with a projecting circular face, e, and a verticalannular face, e.- The face e in its sectional contour exactly conforms to the contour of a iinished car-wheel properly restrict the rim of the blank or Wheel against all liability of lateral expansion, and

said faces also serve to securely guide the por- (Indicated in dot- IOO tion of the rim which is being acted upon bythe main roll B. These rolls C C may be rotated solely by Contact of the car-wheel'therewith, or one or both of them may be positively, driven or lfrictionally driven without departure from my invention. i

As thus far described, it will be seen that a blank or car-wheel, f, suspended on the supporting-rolls, will have its rim f properly worked at the tread f2 and tlan ge f 3, and that at the hub fl and web f5 the metal will be unworked. It will also be seen that the working-roll B, acting with heavy rolling pressure on the periphery of the rim, will force the metal at the junction f of the rim and web downward, and thereby to more or less extent condense that portion of the metal. As clearly indicated in Fig. l, the pass between the coincident faces of the supporting-rolls is somewhat wedge-shaped in cross-section, and this facilitates the lateral condensation of the metal at j'-the junction of the web and rim; but it will be understood that if it were preferred to have said junction in a finished wheel more nearly rectangular in cross-section the degree of this lateral condensation of the web at its j unction with the rim would be less than when the junction sm'face-lines were curved, as shown.

It has heretofore been proposed to so organize three rolls that all should co-operate in forging and developing a car-wheel rim upon a disk-shaped blank; but in such eases it has been proposed to either axially mount and posit-ively revolve the blank, which in turn revolves all the rolls by its contacttherewith, or to positively drive the side workingrolls, and thereby revolve the blank, which in turn would revolve the roll in woiking contact with the tread or periphery of the blank, as distinguished from positively driving the main or tread working-roll, and thereby causing the wheel-blank to revolve, while it is supported by its rim upon the wheel-supporting rolls against the thrusting action of the main roll, as in my machine. 'lhese three rolls in my machine as thus far described involve specific novelty in their combination and mode ef operation, and they will serve a practical purpose even if not supplemented by other portions of the machine which l have devised and employ therewith for obtaining further desirable results.

Vith the wheel-blank or wheel suspended as described, it will freely revolve during the operation of rolling; but l deem it advisable for obtaining the best results that the wheel be axially guided, and this is accomplished by the employment of centering-heads g g, each of which is swiveled upon the end of a screw, q', tapped into a box, q2, which is fitted to slide vertically on splines g3 in suitable openings in the frame of the machine. These screws g g" are in line with each other and parallel with the axes of the rolls B, C, and C and in the same vertical plane, and therefore when a wheel-casting has been placed in the machine, and these screws are advanced with the centering-heads in proper relations with the axial opening in the hub of the wheel, the wheel will be maintained in a truly vertical position and be free to revolve without any liability of its axis departing from the vertical plane occupied by the axes of the working and supporting rolls; and it will also be seen that as the wheel-blank is enlarged, as an incident of the rim-rolling operation, the centering-heads will continue their proper relations with the hub, because the boxes g2, in which the screws are mounted, can slowly move downward, as occasion requires.

\Vhile it will be always most desirable to have the axes of the three rolls horizontal and in the same vertical plane, it will be seen that the mechanical operationthereof will not be very materially atfected if the supporting-rolls be inclined-as, for instance, as indicated by the dotted lilies in Fig. l, (in connection with each of the rolls C ("i-it being obvious that the arrangement of all of said `rolls may be considerably varied, so long as the axis of the wheel-blank can be maintained in line with the axis of the main roll, and also be free io move in or on that line away from the main roll during the circumferential enlargement of the rim incident to the advancing rolling action of the main roll when co-operating with the rim-supporting rolls.

lt will now be observed that if heavy pressure be applied to the main roll l5 the metal of the lrim cannot laterally expand at those portions thereof in contact, respectively,with the vertical annular' faces lf2 b3 and e c', but thai the metal in the side of the rim not thus laterally controlled, as at It, Fig. l, will be liable to bulge out more or less; and hence l provide one or more pairs of iinishing-rolls l) D. lt but one pair of finishing-rolls D be employed, good results will accrue; but with the second pair D the side finishing ot' the rim is more perfectly secured; and, moreover, the use of the two pairs insures the rotative delivery and departure of the rim to and from the main roll and the supporting-rolls with absolute accuracy, because of their reliable rimguiding functions. These rim-finishing rolls are preferably mounted in the frame or housing, so that their axes will be substantially radial to the point occupied by the axis of a car-wheel in position to be rolled in the machine, and one or both of each pair are provided with means by which they may be moved toward each other and positively maintained against retraction while in operation. As shown in Figs. i and l, the boxes i for a tinishing-rol1, I) or l), are arranged to slide in the housing', and they are backed by a double wedge, k, actuated endwise by a screw, so that by advancing said wedge both boxes will be moved and the roll forced outward into proper position for duty and iirmly maintained in place during its operation.

Car-wheels developed from such blanks as have been described possess great practical value, and are suitable for ordinary uses; but they are much improved in finish and rendered even more durable by subjecting them to the action of the machine devised by me, and disclosed in my Letters Patent No. 351,430; and l prefer,when the rim of a wheel is to be thus worked, that the iiange and IOO IOS

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tread of the blank should not be fully developed as to form in my present machine, in order to provide for that radial andv peripheral reduction of the metal in the flange and rim which results from the practice of the invention disclosed by mein myLetters Patent before referred to, and also in my lLetters Patent No. 351,431., October 26, 18845.

Hav ing thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentl. In a machine for rolling the rims of car- Wheels, the combination of a positively-driven main roll having a working-face corresponding to the tread and liange of a iinished wheel, and a pair of rolls having a diameter less than half the diameter of the Wheels to be operated upon and co-operating with the main roll for directly supporting the rim of the wheel at the two sides of its web against the thrusting rolling action of said main roll,

substantially as described.

2. In a machine for rolling the rims of car- Wheels, the combination, substantially as here- `inbefore described, of a positively-driven horizontal main roll having a Working-face conforming to the tread and flange of a car-Wheel, and a pair of car-Wheel-supporting rolls having a diameter less than half the diameter of the Wh eel to be rolled, and also having coincident end faces which conform to the contour of a car-Wheel at the junction of its Web and rim, and which have said faces located below the Working-face of said main roll, and Which also have their axes in the same vertical plane as and parallel Withthe axis of the main roll, whereby a car-Wheel blank vertically supported upon and suspended from said supporting-rolls will be rotated and have its rim and flange progressively acted upon by said main roll.

3. In a machine for rolling the rims of car- Wheels, the combination of a positively-driven horizontal main roll having a Working-face conforming tothe tread and liange of a car- Wheel, and also having side faces for restricting the rim of the Wheel against lateral expansion, and a pair of Wheel-supportin g rolls having a diameter less than half the diam eter of the'car-wheel to be operated upon, and also having coincident end faces below the Working-face of said main roll, and also having their axes parallel with and in the same vertical plane Vas the axis of said main roll, substantially as described.

4. In a machine for rolling the rims of car- Wheels, the combination of a positively-driven horizontal main roll having a Working-face conforming to the periphery of a car-Wheel, a pair of underlying supporting-rolls having a diameter less than one-half the diameter of the Wheels to be operated upon, and also having coincident end faces below the Workingface of the main roll and centering-heads for engaging with the hub of a car-Wheel or Wheelblank and maintaining its axis in the same vertical plane as and parallel With the axes of said three rolls, substantially as described.

5. The combination, with a main horizon tal roll having a Working-face corresponding with the periphery of a car-Wheel, of a pair of horizontal underlying Wheel-supporting rolls having a diameter less than one-half the diameter of the wheels to be operated upon, and also having coincident end faces below the face of the main roll, and finishing-rolls for compressing the rim of a car-Wheel laterally during the operation of the main roll, and

While guiding the Wheel correcting such bulging tendency of the metal at the sides of the rim asis liable to occur during the operation of the main roll, substantially as described.

6. In a machine for rolling the rims of car- Wheels, the combination of a horizontal main roll having a Working-face conforming to the periphery of a car-Wheel, a pair of underlying Wheel-supporting rolls having coincident end faces below the Working-face of said main roll, centering-heads for engaging with the hub of a blank or Wheel and maintaining its axis in proper relation to the axes of the main and the supporting rolls during the rolling operation, and rim-finishing rolls Which closely engage With the sides of the rim of a blank or Wheel for correcting such lateral bulging of the metal as is liable to occur during the operation of the main roll, substantially as de- Witnesses:

HENRY STRONG FoWLER, JOSEPH GROVE. 

